Rain and time equal more water in Lake Oroville

OROVILLE — How can nine days, and 6.36 inches of rain, add up to 40.88 feet? The answer is when one is discussing the water elevation at Lake Oroville.

On Nov. 27, the surface elevation at the lake was 760.87 feet. The Lake Oroville height is computed based on the lake's surface elevation above sea level. Lake Oroville is full at about 900 feet.

As of that November date, 5 inches of rain had been measured at the dam so far this rain year.

In the nine days between that date and Thursday morning, an additional 6.36 inches of rain have been recorded at the dam, bringing the season's total to 11.36 inches.

That rain at the dam, along with the rain that has fallen elsewhere in the Feather River drainage, caused the lake level to rise 40.88 feet, to a total of 801.67 feet as of Thursday. The climb in the lake level added 430,417 acre-feet of water to what's stored behind Oroville Dam. An acre-foot of water is defined as the amount of water it would take to cover a level acre to a depth of 1 foot. If this additional water behind the dam was stacked in an acre-foot column, it would rise about 815 miles into space.